Our Annual Picnic

President's Message

Hello to our website visitors. The San Diego Prowlers are now well into our 71st year. It is August and it's hot even in San Diego. This was our first Summer
since the early '70s that we haven't staged our annual

"Picnic and Ol' Timers Reunion". It really feels good to relax a little and have time to drive our hot rods and maybe even work on them a little.

As promised we are reinventing ourselves back into "doing whatever we want" for a change and leave the event planning to promoters who enjoy that stuff!

We are still the unchallenged "oldest hot rod club" continuously corrupting young men since 1947 so please dig in to our webpages and visit the hot rod club that
has been there the whole time. See the men, cars and their hobby from post WWII to the present that was the laboratory of power and style that helped shape today’s automobile.

News

Other Cars of the Prowlers

Many of the club members have built and owned various rods over the years. We're going to start with Bob Smith and work our way through all the club members as we gather the pictures and
details.Bob, member #102 has owned and built five great club rides over the years.﻿

Bob's first was this blue '27 Ford "T" Roadster that he purchased from member Carl Burnett member #21/2. At that time, this was the third club member to own this roadster. Bob
won many awards with this beautiful roadster, as well as appearing in a large number of magazines such as 1958 March cover car for Hot Rod Magazine, 1958 cover of Rodding and Restyling,
1959 Hot Rod Annual, 1981 Petersen's Best of Hot Rod's, 1984 Rod & Custom Annual, 1999 Hot Rod mag.'s 50th Anniversary Cover and 1999 Rodders Journal. ﻿

Here's a great rear shot of Bob's '27.

Bob Smith is partial to model T bodies because they allow so much more latitude for creative reinterpretation.

This is my favorite roadster of the cars that Bob has built. The "run in" with the officer above was staged for fun. Some pictures following shows the extreme frame required to get the car this
low.

Bob Smith with '27 roadster

Bob Smith test driving the chassis for his '27 roadster on his front lawn

This is an original pic of Bob's '27 in it's first appearance

This is Bob's roadster now

This is the 1923 Ford Center Door sedan Bob built in the 70's. Picture taken at Prowler Picnic at Santee Lakes

Bob's wild T roadster from the 1960s with psychedelic flame job by Robert Martinez

Bob's T roadster picture without body on chassis

Bob Smith's comfortable '32 high boy roadster

Here's Andy Bekech's Nomad. Andy is the Prowler's historian el Superior. The Nomad is finally on the road. Everyone has been anticipating this event...he's been working on this
project since a 454" Chevy engine was "cutting edge" new.

But Andy is patient. The upholsterer put a staple through an electrical wire which postponed the inauguration date only a year. He found it and fixed it finally and he now cruises El Cajon in this
beauty.

Andy has owned this Nomad since 1960. the Nomad has 70k original miles but only 500 since the completed frame off restoration. It is painted with Super Red #2 acrylic enamel. The BB Chevy crate
engine makes 500+ horsepower with a Schneider cam. The car has power disc brakes, power steering, tilt steering column, AC, air bag suspension and electric windows. Andy installed a B&M 700R4
transmission with a 2800 rpm stall torque converter, a Currie 9" Ford differential with Positraction, traction bars and Budnik Billet
wheels.

The engine has a "one off" NASCAR style header and exhaust system. The engine is cooled with an aluminum cross flow radiator. The interior is full italian leather with digital instruments, retains
the original Chevy padded dash and plays music with a 10 disc player.

If you purchase this vehicle 2 large photo albums are included that document the build process plus all the receipts.

Past member Bob DeBurn has succumbed to a terrible "disease" called restoring/ recreating drag cars. Seen at the 2013 California Hot Rod Reunion (CHRR) at Famosa Raceway in Bakersfield,
California. He has the beautiful Copperhead car originally run by Tate, Woolsley and Cox of Mesa, Arizona.

The Woolsley/Cox Copperhead is Bob's latest re-creation. It is as true to the original design as the pictures and information that still existed about the car alllowed. He recovered and used the
original frame and front axle and used other period identical parts in the build. Click on this link following to see the video of Dean Woolsley the original owner/driver of the Copperhead as he
first sees the car he raced so many years ago. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_DMwTZYay8zQlhlTU9wbDl6V1U/edit

A test run at Famoso CHRR in 2013.

Jim Jenks' 32 hiboy.

Jim Jenks' '39 Ford customized sedan

John Nobel owned this 28-29 full fendered roadster. He bought it from Kurt Waters (Bitchen Products) when it was in El Cajon. John later painted this black. Picture is taken at Bakersfield raceway
in the pits. Ken Polesky's phaeton is in the background.